To: aimhigh
Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo ben Issac) the greatest of all jewish commentators on the Torah, in his very first commentary on the very first verse writes as follows:
R. Yitzchok said: The Torah should have begun with [the verse] "This month shall be [your first month]," it being the first precept that the Israelites were commanded. Then why does it [the Torah] begin with "In the beginning"? This is because [of the concept contained in the verse,] "He declared the power of His works to His people in order to give to them the inheritance of nations." Thus, should the nations of the world say to Israel, "You are robbers, for you have taken by force the lands of the Seven Nations," they [Israel] will say to them: "All the earth belongs to G-d. He created it and gave it to whomever He saw fit. It was His will to give it to them (the Nations) and it was His will to take it from them and give it to us (the Jews).
9 posted on
06/03/2002 2:51:49 PM PDT by
kazatzkeh
To: kazatzkeh
I didn't realize that God put asterisks by the Commandments,
"Thou shalt not steal" and "Though shalt not covet thy neighbor's property",
that read:
"*Unless you are a Jew and thy neighbor is a Gentile, in which case these Commandments may be disregarded."
Must be a part of the Torah that didn't make it into the Christian bible.
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